Bill to fund road projects pulled off Alabama Senate agenda

The Alabama Senate today refused to vote on a plan to take as much as $1 billion from a state investment account and spend it on roads, bridges and railroads statewide.

The Senate voted 20-11 for cloture, which would have stopped delaying tactics by opponents, but that was one vote short of the number needed. Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, then pulled the bill from consideration by the Senate, which had been debating it for four days.

The Senate in theory could bring the bill up for debate later in the session, but Barron indicated he might not bring it up again.

The bill would let voters decide Nov. 2 whether to rewrite the state constitution to take as much as $100,000 a year for 10 years from the Alabama Trust Fund to spend on transportation projects.